Lenora, Delilah, and I looked down at the scene of the crime. Windows were broken. People huddled together in a corner, shivering with fear. Several museum employees were tied to the columns that were supporting the building, with one being a man with flat, carefully groomed hair, peach skin, and glasses. He seemed to be most frightened out of all the employees. Lenora scurried down the stairs, crying out, "It's okay, honey! Mama's got'cha!" I assumed that this man was her husband.
The costumed freaks looked at Lenora and realized that she could untie the shackled employees, so they went after her. She sent out a dog-like Pokemon and fought off the villains by using its Roar attack. I pulled out my Pokedex, and (rather loudly) screeched: "Herdier, the Loyal Dog Pokemon. It loyally follows its Trainer's orders. For ages, they have helped Trainers raise Pokémon."
A bunch of the thieves looked straight at me once they heard my Pokedex call out the name of Lenora's Pokemon. One of the thieves even pointed at me and instructed, "She could get the Light Stone before us! Get her!"
A herd of the costumed thieves stampeded towards me, and I began running. I looked back and noticed that Delilah was still standing at the top of the stairs. "What are you doing?" I yelled at her. "Run!"
She ignored orders and continued to float in place. I then realized that she had a strategy of her own up her sleeve (err...arm? I don't know...idioms and Pokemon don't really work together, do they?). I turned around and ran back over to my Froslass. Once the thieves got close enough, she summoned a huge blizzard that swarmed the entire room. I crossed my arms in front of my face as I tried to shield myself from the storm. The villains on the stairs slowly began to freeze into chunks of ice. The people in the room below shivered violently, but the blizzard didn't have as much of an effect on them. Once Delilah finished using Blizzard, the people on the stairs were frozen in their tracks. The other accomplices fled instantly, screeching things like, "Run away!" and "Plasmaaaaaa!"
Lenora finally managed to untie her husband. Once he was free, the two hugged. After that, Lenora looked up at Delilah, who looked like she was ready to pass out, and I. "Thank you so much you two!" she gratefully said. She then remembered something. "Wait, go check the Light Stone! It's in the same exhibit as the cave painting of Zekrom and Reshiram. It's in the back, right-hand side of the room in a display case. Hurry, and quick!"
Delilah decided to lay on the ground and rest, leaving me to venture to the back of the museam and check for the Light Stone myself. I obeyed Lenora's orders and ran over to the exhibit. Then, when I was in the correct area, I focused my attention on the specific part of the room that Lenora said that the artifact was in. I ran over to the back, right-hand corner of the room and began to look at all of the display cases. Before I began looking for the Light Stone, I took my Dark Stone from my bag and used it for reference. I then scrutinized every artifact carefully until I found this particularly small display case. Inside of it was a small, white stone similar to my Dark Stone. This must be it, I thought.
I ran back to the main area to tell Lenora the good news, putting my Dark Stone back into my bag as I did. When I got there, I pulled out Delilah's Pokeball and sent her back to it for a good rest. After that, I looked at the main area below me. Lenora and the bystanders all pitched in to untie the shackled workers. The janitors were sweeping up the broken windows, and Lenora's husband was off to the side, calling someone (probably to work on getting the museum's windows replaced). Lenora was talking to some of the bystanders, apologizing for the chaos that had occurred. She noticed that I was back and ran up the stairs to talk to me. "So," she asked with concern, "did they get the Light Stone?"
"Nope," I assured her. "The case was untouched, and the object was in its place."
She let out a sigh of relief. "Oh thank Arceus!" she cheered. "Honey, if it weren't for you and your Froslass, the world would probably come to an end."
I showed a confused expression at first, then remembered what she had told me earlier about what would happen if the Light and Dark Stones got into the wrong hands. "It was nothing," I explained. "Back home, my sister prepared me for potential Team Galactic attacks, although I wasn't prepared for Delilah to use Blizzard on those rogues-maybe Ice Beam, but not Blizzard. I actually didn't know that she knew that move, to be honest."
"Well, forget the rest of the gym battle." She pulled out a rectangular trinket from her apron. It was a deep purple in the center and lined with gold around the edges; there were also gold stripes running through the top and bottom poles of the trinket. "This is the Basic Badge. You deserved it. It's the least I can do to thank you for preventing an apocalypse."
"But," I protested. "I didn't even finish battling you! My sister's had run-ins with disaster plenty of times. She'd never-"
Lenora winked as she put the badge in my hand. "You have promise. Go earn the other ones fair and square. However, you deserved this: both you and your Froslass displayed great power. That's what getting a gym badge tells people; you have proven yourself to be worthy of a good battle. If I were you, I'd backtrack a little. Go to Striaton City and battle Cress, Chili, or Cilan."
She began to walk back to her study. "But, wait!" I called out.
Lenora turned around again. "Yes?"
"Who were those goons back there?"
"The ones trying to steal the Light Stone? That was Team Plasma. They're a rather unusual bunch. Not really sure what they're trying to use the Light Stone for, but it sure ain't good, honey."
Lenora then turned her back to me and walked back to her study.
I simply watched her fade away into the distance. Once she was out of sight, I glimpsed down at the badge that she had put in my hand. Lenora's words echoed in my mind: "You have promise."
I decided to take a chance with this whole "gym leader battling" thing. As a growing adolescent, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with my life yet. I decided to take up battling gym leaders as a way to fill up my Pokedex and determine my destiny. Who knows? I thought. Maybe I'll end up following in Candice's footsteps one day.
As I looked at the badge, I thought, Where to put this? I didn't have a badge case like some of Candice's opponents did. However, I did have a backpack. I pinned the page to the inside of the front pocket of my backpack. There, I thought, satisfied with my decision, now it's safe and stored securely.
I walked down the stairs slowly. There was pride in my step and a faint smile on my face. (It would've been a full smile, but I was exhausted and hungry.) When I reached the bottom of the stairs, Lenora's husband ran over to greet me. "Hello!" he said, smiling warmly. "Thank you for protecting the Light Stone. Allow me to introduce myself: I'm Hawes, the assistant director of the Nacrene Museum and Lenora's husband. Let me just say that you are welcome back any time."
"Thank you sir," I told him. "I'd love to stay, but it's nearly five in the afternoon, and I have loads to do before nightfall."
"Before you do, let me give you Lenora's Cross-tranciever number."
He punched the number into the video watch device, and I watched carefully (as I had no idea how to do any of that junk with the thing at the time). "Thank you, but do you mind telling me how to call with this thing? Professor Juniper gave me this, and I don't know how to use it quite yet."
He gave me a short tutorial on using the Cross-tranciever, and then said, "Lenora seemed to grow fond of you. If we ever need your assistance, we'll give you a call."
"Thank you, sir," I told him as I left the building.
